Monday, November 28

Breather

Sometimes, the schedule-maker-man is on your side. Just when the Sonics need a breath, they have three days off, followed by a winnable game at home against Charlotte. Of course, "winnable" games for the Sonics are like Dick Cheney: oft-discussed but seldom seen.

Unfortunately for Sonic fans, the month of December beckons, with a schedule from hell. Among Seattle's opponents at holiday time: Dallas, San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, Philly, and Utah (twice). Think 5-8 looks bad? Try imagining what the record will look like after Christmas.

At least this recent spate of miserable losses (culminating with Saturday's defeat to the Homeless Hornets) has provided us with the first nomination for Quote of the Year, coming from the unlikely Mikki Moore. To wit:

"We need to stop [freaking] babying some of these [guys] and start being real with them."Thanks, Mik. Of course, it would mean a heckuva lot more coming from a guy whoseseason-high in points was more than 3.

Paul Silas or Lenny Wilkens anyone? Lenny's withering stare has been known to send more than a few players off, broken, and willing to play as hard on defense as it takes to ensure they are never subjected to that again.

Guilty as charged, Lance, although I've had Photoshop for a few years, I just thought I'd do something different. Now, if we could Chunky to utilize his skills and draw something, we'd actually have something here. C'mon, Chunk, you don't want us to start calling you the Derrick McKey of supersonicsoul, now do you?

Maybe I'm just panicking for no reason, but is it me, or do the Sonics not have any defense this season? I know this may seem obvious, but in comparison to last year, we have absolutely no defensive intensity whatsoever and I cannot see why not. The NOK game was a perfect example of just no intensity.

What worries me is that Weiss seems to be panicking. That line about "I don't care how you get it done" to improve defense? How long did it take him to abandon his "run and gun" philosophy? Maybe the team will get it together, but everytime I read one of his quotes, I think "Yikes."

Nate, thanks for the compliment. I'm 100% behind you on your comments re Weiss. I have always been nervous of people who abandon their principles whenver trouble strikes.

It reminds me of something that happened to Bob Jones University 5 or 6 years ago. Up until that point, BJU had the ridiculous policy of barring interracial dating amongst its students. The rest of the nation ignored the policy until Bush Jr. came by to speak at the university, thus drawing attention to the prehistoric - and stupid - tradition.

After a week or two of sticking by its admittedly dumb principles, BJ's president went on Larry King and stated that as of that moment, BJ would no longer prohibit interracial dating.

My point, after all of this rambling, is this. How can anyone respect BJ's president if he's willing to abandon his principles as soon as they become unpopular? Obviously, he made the right decision to end his school's policy, but it was wrong 50 years ago, 25 years ago, and 2 days ago. Why didn't he change it then?

Likewise, how can Seattle's players respect Weiss if within one month of his hiring he completely abandons his "run and gun" ideal that he mentioned so often during the summer?

Look, I know Weiss ultimately will get fired if he doesn't produce victories, but anyone with the slightest bit of statistical brainpower will tell you that two weeks worth of evidence is not enough to make a decision. Yes, the Sonics looked horrific back east in losing multiple games by 20+ points. But if you're going to change your team's strategy every time they go on a 3-game losing streak, you're going to have a team full of guys who don't know what the hell the plan is.

Failure always breeds dissension, and it is the coach's job to keep that dissension to a minimum. If we were to grade Coach Weiss on his ability to keep things in order, that grade would have to be a failing one.

I think you guys are being a little to overdramatic when you talk about the 'run and gun' philosophy. That was never what Weiss either said or intended. He was the guy who put forward the idea of get it early or get it late which really helped last years squad. What he wanted out of this years squad was for them to get it early a bit more if it was available.

The papers write thier stories based upon what they want to get people to think or thier own personal bias (anyone but me notice that Percy Allen doesn't bitch about his boy Flip Murray?).

I'm torn on Weiss because while I'd love for him to keep a consistent 9 man rotation, there's no one that's stepping up and earning those minutes. You'd think that a couple guys would just say 'there's minutes available and I want them' but no one has.

Maybe you're right, Scott, but I sure came away with the impression this summer that the Sonics were going to look to emulate the Suns. In reading through the internet, though, it appears that the truth was somewhere in between. Yes, Weiss was going to look to open things up a bit, but, no, he wasn't going to go Paul Westhead-crazy out there. So, to summarize, I'll yield to your argument about the run-and-gun.

That being said, how many flip-flops has Weiss made in his brief tenure? How many different lineups has he thrown out there? How many different rotations? How many guys have been benched for one game, then play 18 minutes the next? Add it up, and you can't help but feel that the man is grasping at straws a bit. Most of that is due to the losing, of course, but by reacting so harshly he is exaggerating the problem. The great thing about McMillan was his conviction. Whether it was the right way or not, Mac-10 was going to do it his way, and you have to imagine that gave confidence to the team. I just don't see this team having too much confidence right now in a) their coach and b) themselves.

we miss AD on D. he was and still is the only perimeter player we had/have who can slow anyone down. we all know Frodo is no defensive stopper. allen is not a discrace but he has to carry the O and to ask him to stick the other team's ballhandler/penetrator will only wear him out and hurt our scoring (plus i don't know that he is that good at D anyway) we still have bangers in the middle, so no one say we miss the big snack! we need to make a move, we can not rely on Cleeves to fill AD's role defensively, it is a miricle he is still in the league even with his recent play. but we need someone to make stops on the perimeter. is the omen going to make that happen....hopefully but he does not handle the ball that well and therefore does not fit the rotation as well as AD did. and the other obvious reason the sonics are the worst defensive team in the league is, as was astutely pointed out above, the absence of a coach with a clue. weiss is trying to be these guys' friends, he is not making them accountable. "i don't care how we do it" ?? that quote almost made me hurle. if i ever hear that from an NBA coach, that shows me he is not qualified to lead an NBA team. don't care how? you are the coach for god's sake. you better figure out a way how. nate did. wiess is a softy and an assistant coach. we did not even look for a qualified coach, that goes against wally and sund. ever since i heard he was hired, i knew we were in for a long year. i hate to say fire him already, only one month into the season, but he never should have been hired in the first place. i say when you recognize a mistake, you try to fix it ASAP, what is the point of sticking with a mistake when things just keep getting worse??sorry- had to vent. go sonics.

"The great thing about McMillan was his conviction. Whether it was the right way or not, Mac-10 was going to do it his way, and you have to imagine that gave confidence to the team."

This is simply just not a fair statement. You're discribing the Nate Mcmillan of one year out of his five year coaching reign. For the first three years he was the coach here there were guys all over the place going from DNP-CD's to starting to 15 minutes off teh bench all in the span of a month. I can't say how many times this happened to Booth, James, Drobnjak and Potapenko and that's just the frontcourt.

If you look at the Blazers this year he's done it at a couple positions already with Monia not getting off the bench in the first 3 games then getting the starting nod. Martell's already getting frusterated at his yo-yoing minutes.

I think there's a ton of criticism for Weiss's rotations and certain comments he's made. I've listened to a lot of his full pratice interviews and he says one thing and does another. It's a legit gripe. But there's that little part of me that says you can't give consistent minutes if they're not being earned.

For as much credit as Nate deserves for his rotation last year, it was by far the easiest rotation he ever had to set. he had 11 guys coming into the year that had shown (or had the potential) to be rotational players. Right before the start of the season two of them get hurt leaving the team with 9 bodies who were ready for thier roles. 9 man rotation, 9 bodies works pretty well. By the time those guys came back we had this great record and there's no way we could have changed back.